The White House has launched a review of two dozen national monuments designated by former Presidents in the last two decades.

Interior Department

A review of the Antiquities Act is a victory for Utah’s Republican political leaders, who are among the people flanking President Donald Trump as he signed an executive order April 16, 2017.

That review sets the stage for what could be a bitter fight over the federal law that allows presidents to make those designations – the Antiquities Act – and over the future of the newest monument: an expanse of land in southeastern Utah surrounding the twin mesas of Bear’s Ears.

This dispute goes way back. In the summer of 2016, former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell presided over a listening session in the postcard-pretty town of Bluff. Thermometers topped 100 degrees that day in southeastern Utah’s redrock country. Yet, hundreds jammed the tiny Bluff Community Center, and they listened over loudspeakers in the dusty, dirt parking lot, to the debate over the future of nearby land that everyone seems to cherish.

Judy Fahys / KUER

Tribal leaders spent an afternoon with then-Interior Secretary Sally Jewell last summer behind the Bears Ears Buttes. Native Americans who supported the creation of a national monument shared their stories as they tried to convince the Obama administration to protect their sacred traditions and tens of thousands of archaeological sites as a national monument.

“Madam secretary,” one monument opponent said, “can you please answer to us: What gives you the constitutional right to come in here and dictate land here in the state of Utah?”

“Making this designation will take courage,” a young tribal member told Jewell, “and I pray that the president has the courage to make this designation.”

After fielding over three four hours of impassioned comments, Jewell wrapped things up. She said: “I have heard you loud and clear.”

Judy Fahys / KUER

Over 1,000 people attended a listening session held by the former U.S. Interior Secretary, Sally Jewell, last July. Temperatures topped 100 degrees, and the tiny Bluff Community Center building was jammed. But some people stayed through over 4 hours of comments to listen to and take part in the discussion.

And a few months later Obama created the 1.3 million acre Bears Ears National Monument as one of his last official acts as president.

This week, the White House tasked Ryan Zinke, the new Interior Secretary, has been tasked by President Trump with reassessing two dozen national monuments, beginning with Bears Ears.

“Mr. President,” Zinke said at an official signing ceremony in President Trump’s office on April 26, “thank you once again for fulfilling your campaign promise to give a voice to our local communities and states.”

Trump’s executive order gives Zinke the summer to suggest changes to the 24 monuments and possibly the century-old Antiquities Act. Utah Republicans and the Trump administration say reform is long overdue. They contend the Antiquities Act is being abused and harming rural Americans.

“The Trump administration is doing what should have been done in the first place,” says U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, “by not only talking to people who live on the ground but actually listening to them.”

As chairman of the House Resources Committee, Bishop is eager to help the administration with the overhaul. He represents the concerns of many Utah locals who have traditionally mined and ranched federal public lands. “Ultimately,” he adds, “there has to be some legislative changes that are made.”

A president has never rescinded another president’s monument, and attorney John Leshy says that’s just one sign of how well the Antiquities Act has held up since 1906. But the Trump administration has been so unconventional it is hard to predict any threats Zinke’s review might pose to the law and its principles, Leshy continues.

“Recommendations could include going to Congress, trying to take action on his own or doing nothing,” says Leshy. “At this point, he leaves all options open.”

Leshy was the Interior Department’s top lawyer two decades ago when President Bill Clinton created another controversial Utah monument, the Grand Staircase Escalante. That monument is also part of the Zinke review.

But Leshy says past court challenges and political efforts against the Grand Staircase failed. And now he wonders whether how much the Trump administration will be swayed by the love Americans feel for federal public lands.

Monument “defenders will hopefully make themselves heard loud and clear in this process,” he says, “and say, ‘We’re fine and happy with these things and don’t tinker with them’.”

Shaun Chapoose, chairman of the Ute tribe, is a big supporter. His tribe was part of the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition, which urged Obama to create the Bear’s Ears monument,to allow tribes to continue traditions like herb-gathering, to protect cultural resources like the hundreds of thousands of archaeological sites and for grazing and other popular activities enjoyed by locals who’ve settled the area.

Judy Fahys / KUER

Regina Lopez Whiteskink, a Ute, and Jonah Yellowman, a Navajo, were part of the coalition that gave up on a legislative solution for protections at Bears Ears and urged the-President Barack Obama to create the Bears Ears National Monument on Dec. 28. The two are shown last summer in an herb-gathering area behind the iconic buttes.

“And what’s crazy is antiquities, right — who’s more antique than Native American tribes?” he asks. “Really, what we’re trying to protect by designating the area is exactly the history of the first peoples here in North America.”

Chapoose wonders if discrimination is to blame for the Trump administration’s attack on Bears Ears. He points out it is the only national monument of 150 championed by Native Americans and designed with a co-management role for tribes.

Others are also hoping the monument designations stick, especially at Bears Ears. They include rock climbers, archaeologists, conservationists and even local entrepreneurs, like Ashley Korenblat.

She runs a cycling guide service in Moab, a tourist town that used to be a mining hub just north of the monument area.

“The Antiquities Act is bringing economic development to places where resource extraction hasn’t been providing,” says Korenblat, who also runs a nonprofit called Public Lands Solutions.

“The folks that are asking for this [national monument] review hope to prove that we’re hurting the economy of these communities,” she says. “But the reality is, we are promoting those economies because, in the 21st century, people want to visit historic and natural places, which is what the Antiquities Act provides.”

The Trump administration’s April 26 directive does not require Zinke to get broad public input or public hearings for his review. But the Interior Secretary is promising to visit southeastern Utah, just like his predecessor did last summer.

Find out when Inside Energy’s documentary about the Dakota Access Pipeline and Bear’s Ears is airing on your local PBS station by going to our Beyond Standing Rock website.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is supposed to deliver a preliminary report to President Trump in 45 days. Stay tuned for a June 10th report.

]]>http://insideenergy.org/2017/04/28/a-monumental-review-for-bears-ears/feed/0Documentary: Beyond Standing Rockhttp://insideenergy.org/2017/02/14/documentary-beyond-standing-rock/
http://insideenergy.org/2017/02/14/documentary-beyond-standing-rock/#respondTue, 14 Feb 2017 21:23:29 +0000http://www.insideenergy.org/?p=35696Inside Energy, in collaboration with Rocky Mountain PBS and Fast Forward Films, presents Beyond Standing Rock, a one-hour documentary exploring the conflict of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the struggle for Native American rights against the backdrop of the new Trump administration.

From covering the protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline for months on air and online, we know that this story is about much more than a dispute over a single pipeline. It is a lens through which we can examine the wider tug-of-war between tribes and the U.S. government.

Beyond Standing Rock takes viewers from the front lines of violent protests against the infrastructure and transportation of crude oil, to the well-funded headquarters of a tribe developing their own rich energy deposits, to the remote reaches of contested national monument lands—all with breathtaking cinematography and insightful interviews.

Watch and Get Involved

If you want to organize a screening or otherwise bring the documentary to your community, let us know here.

The hourlong documentary will air on public television stations around the country in the coming months. Check back for updates.

At the premiere screening at the Sie FilmCenter in Denver, Inside Energy correspondent and the film’s producer Leigh Paterson moderated a Q&A discussion following the film, featuring:

Amy Sisk, Inside Energy’s reporter covering the Dakota Access Pipeline on the ground. Her extensive coverage of the issue for NPR is ongoing.

Jonathan Thompson, award-winning journalist and contributing editor for High Country News. He’s covered Native American and public lands issues across the West for over a decade.

Antonia Gonzales, Navajo, has covered indigenous issues for tribal and public radio stations for over a decade as anchor and producer of National Native News, and now also as a correspondent for New Mexico PBS’ New Mexico In Focus.

You can catch watch the full Q&A from the night, right here:

At the height of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests we put together a roundup of our audience members’ most pressing questions. You can read that here. We’re still taking your questions and feedback on the documentary. Submit yours below—your question could become our next story.

Meet the Producers

Alisa Joyce Barba, Executive Producer
Alisa Joyce Barba is an award-winning journalist, producer, writer and editor with 25 years of experience in both commercial and public broadcasting. She is Executive Editor at Inside Energy, a public media collaboration focused on America’s energy issues.

Prior to IE, Barba served as Senior Editor for Fronteras: the Changing America Desk, a regional news collaboration project involving seven public radio stations across the southwest. She also served as Western Bureau Chief for NPR for 12 years. Her radio work has won numerous national and regional awards. As a freelance producer in 2002, Barba won the coveted Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for her work as Executive Producer of a KPBS documentary entitled “Culture of Hate: Who Are We?”.

Brian Malone, Producer/Director/Editor
Brian Malone is a seven-time Heartland Emmy®-Award winning producer/director, editor and composer. Malone is also the 2016 winner of the True Grit – Colorado Filmmaker Award presented by the Denver Film Society Malone has been making documentary films for over 20 years. His programs have aired nationally on PBS stations and cable networks, covering political issues, public education, Grammy-Award-Winning recording artists, environmental issues, and Native American culture.

In 2016, Malone won the Heartland Emmy for Best Documentary (Topical) for his film, “Education, Inc.” which uncovers the national move by hedge fund managers to privatize America’s public education system. Malone’s documentary film “Patriocracy” looks at the political divisions in American politics and features Alan Simpson, Bob Schieffer and more than 40 members of Congress. Malone’s film “Forgiveness: The Steven McDonald Story,” won two Emmy Awards in 2013 for its broadcast on Rocky Mountain PBS. This film chronicles NYPD detective Steven McDonald, who was paralyzed after being shot in Central Park and has gone on to rebuild his life as an inspirational peace advocate all over the world.

In addition to film work, Malone co-created the popular YouTube series, Energy 101, for US Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Energy 101 has been used by President Obama and former Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, as part of the Administration’s renewable energy initiatives.

Leigh Paterson, Correspondent/Writer
Leigh Paterson has worked as Inside Energy’s Wyoming and Colorado correspondent since April of 2014. Leigh received her Master’s in Broadcast Journalism from the S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, then spent two years as a producer at Canadian TV’s Washington DC bureau. Before joining Inside Energy, Leigh reported for TV and radio as a one woman show freelancer for BBC News, BBC World Service, PRI’s the World, ABC-Univision, Agence France Presse, and CBC News.

Learn More

Wondering how we got here? From 19th-century treaties to today’s clashes in rural North Dakota, this interactive timeline walks you through the events of the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy.